Previews

Prince of Persia 3

The city of Babylon is your battlefield this time around, and one of the things that impressed us the most about the demo was the vastness of the city. Down below you'll be fighting in narrow, darkened alleyways littered with barrels and abandoned market stalls. Farther up is a maze of windows, balconies, and ledges. Above that you'll find rooftops of varying heights, the tallest of which provide panoramic views of the sprawling city below, under siege and burning. The Prince is at his finest leaping from rooftop to rooftop, coming down on unsuspecting enemies from above. Graphically, it looked spectacular, and from what we saw it looked like the level design might equal (or even surpass!) the original.

You won't just traverse the city on foot. Although it's not a major part of the game, there are a couple of chariot sequences in it. The designers really wanted to get across the feeling of the Prince being hunted, so in one sequence we witnessed, the Prince steals an enemy chariot and races toward the city and ultimately through a meandering maze of streets. The action here was blazing fast, like Ben Hur meets The Matrix: Enemies leapt from balconies to grab onto the Prince's chariot -- sometimes dragging in the sand behind him -- while he frantically beat them back. Later in the game you'll apparently need to fight a boss from the back of a chariot. It looks like these sequences will help break up the action, even if they won't be a major game element.

The big guy here is gonna require a little 'finesse...'

Speaking of boss fights, get ready for some pretty huge encounters. Many of the invading army generals have been corrupted by the Sands of Time, and during our demo we saw one of them camped out in a coliseum. That is to say, he filled the coliseum. He was several stories high. Our Prince dodged nimbly aside as he smashed the earth with a massive scimitar, then clambered up the walls to higher and higher platforms before leaping onto the monster's shoulders. While the General thrashed around, the Prince nimbly scampered along his shoulders and neck, then -- thanks to a swift speed kill move -- he leapt around the enormous head and stabbed out one of the creature's eyes. After a couple of these little maneuvers the Prince was fighting a blinded enemy, a much easier proposition. It was the kind of big epic conflict that reminded us of God of War.

But the real story here isn't about the Prince defeating tons of enemies. Prince of Persia 3 is about the young punk we saw in Sands of Time finally learning what it means to be a King. The people of Babylon are reaching out to him for help, and for once The Prince has to learn to think about someone other than himself. His way to becoming a savior to the people is a difficult struggle, filled with setbacks -- often taking physical form as the Dark Prince -- but the trilogy looks like it will end with the Prince finally earning his royal title and the respect of the people he governs.

We have high hopes for this one, which should be available late this year. Stick around to GameSpy for more coverage!